As the dark clouds of lockdown gather once again, it is nice to fiddle when Rome burns in BM’s favourite local venue, The Glad.
While not as well-attended as the October Modern Studies gig, this one still had a good 40 or so people in the audience, and what a treat they got.
First on was Jill Lorean, raised in Chicago but immersed in the Scottish music scene for years now, she played solo and gave us 8 (okay, maybe 7) glorious tracks, mainly from the still-to-be-released debut album, out next year.
A festive rendering of her version of ‘Silent Night’ merged into ‘The Breaking Down’, resurgent with guitar riffs and Jill’s high-register and unique voice. The more familiar ‘Kneading’, already released, got the toes tapping. Several of the tracks involve her setting up a guitar or fiddle loop, and this was duly done – she was not as nervous as her support slot with Sumshapes back in the autumn and gave us some of her always interesting patter, including impressions of her very Scottish daughter’s latest musings… Older track ‘Dog-Eared Rose’ got the solo treatment, then not-heard-before track ‘Black Dog’, before a solo rendition of current and incredible single ‘Walls’ – this will be so good to hear live with collaborators Monaghon and Kelly, getting quite a bit of radio play recently as well…
New tracks ‘Anti-War Lullaby’ and ‘Late For The Disco’ sounded resplendent, and the audience could tell JL was growing in confidence, as well she might with this battery of songs – BM for one cannot wait for the album release….
And so to Modern Studies, who since their last Glad gig have travelled the country and were playing Edinburgh the following day. The four-piece as usual combined pastoral English folk with some Krautrock backbeats and some catchy pop. They also seemed a bit more grounded, having played together a lot more often, so tracks from their previous album, their lockdown EP and the next release (out in April on Fire records) were all in the setlist. There wasn’t too much chat, but Emily on vocals/keyboards had a few quips, which led to some audience feedback…
Emily (apropos of the new record) – “Well, they said it would never happen…”
Audience member: “To me and the girl from Clapham”… (for those who don’t know, a classic couplet from ‘Up The Junction’ by Squeeze, around 1980… (’79 – pedantic Ed)
This could have been a bit hard to keep up if it was one man and a guitar, but luckily the combined efforts of keys/bass/guitar and drums meant there were no further interruptions… And Pete is still playing bass rather than cello due to injury, but the good news is that he is really enjoying it, and it does change the sound, on some tracks, maybe for the better. Great guitar solos as well, plus Joe Smillie’s varied and interesting drums, always different and never the same, so in all this really did sound like a different setlist to October, although BM knows the tracks were mainly the same…
Respect due also to Richie on the sound desk and to the Glad for continuing to promote bands from far and wide in this eclectic corner of Glasgow’s Southside.